... I was a pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. This was actually the second day of the pilgrimage and one of the most tiring of the whole trip. I went with Tori and Alison, best friend and twin sister respectively, on our bikes (en bici). My bike was named Rocinantes, which is the name of Don Quixote's not-so-noble steed. It was a bike I bought on e-bay so it wasn't much to look at, but what a champion! In the picture we have (from left to right) Plata, Alison's bike named after the Lone Ranger's horse, Silver. Next is Babieca, Tori's bike, named after El Cid, a medieval Spanish hero's horse. And finally, good ole Rocinantes. They are loaded down with all of the belongings we had with us in Spain except for what we were wearing and what was in our camel backs.
That day we saw a few landmarks of the Camino. The first was a little, octagonal, Romanesque church called Aunate. It was a quiet place that had been a place for pilgrims to rest and pray for centuries. On the altar, a cloth was embroidered with the words "Venid a mi", which means "Come to me." It's like the passage that says come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest. I thought that was so appropriate for doing a pilgrimage. The next landmark was Puente la Reina or Bridge of the Queen. It was also very old like the church. And finally, at the end of the day we reached the fuente de vino. 
Some of you may recognize the word vino. Yes, it was a wine fountain set up for pilgrims. The story goes that if you drink from the wine fountain at Irache you will have the strength to make it all the way to Santiago de Compostela. I guess it worked because we eventually got there. More to come on that later. The fountain was basically a spigot that came out of a wall and was impossible to drink from without getting the wine all over your face. 
At the end of such a long and difficult day (we traveled about 36 miles) it was a very welcome treat as you can tell by my face.
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